323 research outputs found
Can Deflagration-Detonation-Transitions occur in Type Ia Supernovae?
The mechanism for deflagration-detonation-transition (DDT) by turbulent
preconditioning, suggested to explain the possible occurrence of delayed
detonations in Type Ia supernova explosions, is argued to be conceptually
inconsistent. It relies crucially on diffusive heat losses of the burned
material on macroscopic scales. Regardless of the amplitude of turbulent
velocity fluctuations, the typical gradient scale for temperature fluctuations
is shown to be the laminar flame width or smaller, rather than the factor of
thousand more required for a DDT. Furthermore, thermonuclear flames cannot be
fully quenched in regions much larger than the laminar flame width as a
consequence of their simple ``chemistry''. Possible alternative explosion
scenarios are briefly discussed.Comment: 8 pages, uses aastex; added references. Accepted by ApJ Letter
The Thermonuclear Explosion Of Chandrasekhar Mass White Dwarfs
The flame born in the deep interior of a white dwarf that becomes a Type Ia
supernova is subject to several instabilities. We briefly review these
instabilities and the corresponding flame acceleration. We discuss the
conditions necessary for each of the currently proposed explosion mechanisms
and the attendant uncertainties. A grid of critical masses for detonation in
the range - g cm is calculated and its
sensitivity to composition explored. Prompt detonations are physically
improbable and appear unlikely on observational grounds. Simple deflagrations
require some means of boosting the flame speed beyond what currently exists in
the literature. ``Active turbulent combustion'' and multi-point ignition are
presented as two plausible ways of doing this. A deflagration that moves at the
``Sharp-Wheeler'' speed, , is calculated in one dimension
and shows that a healthy explosion is possible in a simple deflagration if the
front moves with the speed of the fastest floating bubbles. The relevance of
the transition to the ``distributed burning regime'' is discussed for delayed
detonations. No model emerges without difficulties, but detonation in the
distributed regime is plausible, will produce intermediate mass elements, and
warrants further study.Comment: 28 pages, 4 figures included, uses aaspp4.sty. Submitted to Ap
Conditional-moment Closure with Differential Diffusion for Soot Evolution in Fire
The conditional-moment closure (CMC) equation for the evolution of a large Lewis number scalar, soot, is derived starting from the joint probability density function (pdf) equation for the gas-phase mixture fraction, Ο g , and the soot mass fraction, Y s . Unlike previous approaches starting with the joint pdf, the residual terms that result from the typical closure models were retained. A new formulation of the one-dimensional turbulence (ODT) model suitable for spatially evolving flows with buoyant acceleration and radiative transport in participating media was employed to carry out simulations of a prototypical ethene fire. The resulting ODT evolution of Ο g and Y s was used to assess the significance of various terms in the CMC equation including the residual correlations. The terms involving differential diffusion are found to be important along with the soot source terms and the large-scale evolution of both Ο g and Y s . Of particular importance in the regions in mixture-fraction space around the soot production and consumption is a residual term, not previously identified, related to the correlation between the differential diffusion and Y s . This term results in a diffusion-like behavior of Y s in the mixture fraction coordinate that has an apparent Lewis number near unity. In scenarios where the large Lewis number component is a non-negligible component of the mixture fraction (i.e., large soot loading), it is found easier to employ a mixture fraction neglecting this component. Such a mixture-fraction variable has a chemical source term, but this appears easier to model than the differential diffusion and dissipation terms that result when the large Lewis number component is retained in the mixture-fraction definition
On the Stability of Thermonuclear Burning Fronts in Type Ia Supernovae
The propagation of cellularly stabilized thermonuclear flames is investigated
by means of numerical simulations. In Type Ia supernova explosions the
corresponding burning regime establishes at scales below the Gibson length. The
cellular flame stabilization - which is a result of an interplay between the
Landau-Darrieus instability and a nonlinear stabilization mechanism - is
studied for the case of propagation into quiescent fuel as well as interaction
with vortical fuel flows. Our simulations indicate that in thermonuclear
supernova explosions stable cellular flames develop around the Gibson scale and
that deflagration-to-detonation transition is unlikely to be triggered from
flame evolution effects here.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the IAU
Colloquium 192, "Supernovae (10 years of SN1993J)", 22-26 April 2003,
Valencia, Spain, Eds. J.M. Marcaide and K.W. Weiler, Springer Verla
Stochastic Simulation of Scalar Mixing Capturing Unsteadiness and Small-scale Structure Based on Mean-flow Properties
Improved Lagrangian mixing models for passive scalars in isotropic turbulence
Lagrangian data for velocity, scalars, and energy and scalar dissipation from direct numerical simulations are used to validate Lagrangian mixing models for inert passive scalars in stationary isotropic turbulence. The scalar fluctuations are nearly Gaussian, and, as a result of production by uniform mean gradients, statistically stationary. Comparisons are made for Taylor-scale Reynolds numbers in the range 38 to about 240 and Schmidt numbers in the range 1/8 to 1. Model predictions for one-point, one-time Eulerian statistics ~Eulerian correspondence! and one-particle, two-time Lagrangian statistics ~Lagrangian correspondence! are examined. Two scalar mixing models, namely the Lagrangian FokkerâPlanck model and the Lagrangian colored-noise ~LCN! model, are proposed and written in terms of stochastic differential equations ~SDE! with specified drift and diffusion terms. Both of these models rely on statistics of the scalar field conditioned upon the energy dissipation, as provided by the Lagrangian spectral relaxation ~LSR! model. With the exception of the scalar dissipation, the models are shown to capture the Reynolds and Schmidt-number dependence of the Lagrangian integral time scales. However, the LCN model provides a more realistic description of the Lagrangian scalar fluctuations as differentiable time series having the correct form of the scalar autocorrelation function. Further extensions of the new mixing models to non-Gaussian scalars are conceptually straightforward, but require a closure for the scalar-conditioned scalar dissipation rate matrix. Likewise, accurate prediction of joint statistics for differential diffusion between different scalars with unequal molecular diffusivities will require the formulation of a multiscale SDE similar to the LSR model
Non-Gaussian Distributions in Extended Dynamical Systems
We propose a novel mechanism for the origin of non-Gaussian tails in the
probability distribution functions (PDFs) of local variables in nonlinear,
diffusive, dynamical systems including passive scalars advected by chaotic
velocity fields. Intermittent fluctuations on appropriate time scales in the
amplitude of the (chaotic) noise can lead to exponential tails. We provide
numerical evidence for such behavior in deterministic, discrete-time passive
scalar models. Different possibilities for PDFs are also outlined.Comment: 12 pages and 6 figs obtainable from the authors, LaTex file,
OSU-preprint-
Values of the Federal Public Lands
v, 158 p. ; 28 cmhttps://scholar.law.colorado.edu/books_reports_studies/1038/thumbnail.jp
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